Author
Topic: Eat All The Food In Your House - Take 2 (Read 295092 times)

I would love the recipe! I have come to the sad realization that my body does better when it is sugar free :(

Mine too. But I love all the foodz so much. But I love fitting in my pants, too. Damn these tradeoffs.

Recipe:

1.5 c Masa.5 c cornmeal1.25 c VERY HOT water, or a bit more if neededSalt. Be generous.2 tbsp oil (I used olive oil)

Some large qty. of fat for frying. I used mostly lard. This is totally up to you but make it high heat.

Mix all ingredients together, and knead the dough a bit. Dough should be like play doh almost. If it's crumbly, add a bit more water.

Plop the dough on a sheet of parchment and top with another sheet of parchment. Roll dough out betwnen the parchment until it's a big circle about 3/8" thick (or a bit thinner if you want more like chips and less like cornmeal fries).

Slice the dough into strips maybe 1/2 inch wide, and 2 or 3 inches long. It doesn't have to be perfect.

Heat up some oil or lard or whatever to about 375, or until a tester corn strip bubbles when you drop it in. Fry the strips in batches until they are golden brown and delicious, about 4 minutes???

Use a big slotted spoon to transfer the strips to a cooling rack to drain, and sprinkle with a bit more salt as they come out of the hot fat.

Used up some expensive chocolate chips that I bought for a very specific recipe that have been hanging around for far too long. Made brownies, they aren't amazing (I kind of 'adapted' the recipe to what I had on hand, it was a bit of a throw it all in and see job), but they are pretty tasty. So glad that container is gone.

I need to get in on this! We made our quarterly Costco run the other day and while putting food away, I kept discovering things in the cupboards that have been sitting there for ages. So I think our goal for the next couple weeks is to only buy produce from the grocery store to supplement what's stocked up in the pantry.

Also, our balcony garden is absolutely exploding, too, so I have more mint, parsley, rosemary, and thyme than I know what to do with. Pretty soon I'll have a bunch of basil too (we got a late start on growing it from seed, so the plants are only a couple inches tall now). Any ideas? I've made a lot of roast chicken/potatoes/veggies using the rosemary and thyme (SO GOOD), we've put parsley/mint in salads, mint in mojitos, etc. (Can I just say, I will never pay for a mojito in a restaurant again after learning to make them myself!)

dried coconut strips - tried to soften with water, but results were pretty mixed. oh well.pumpkin puree + pancake mix - Alas, came out poorly! Used too much of the puree, and it was just... overwhelming.

Somecobwebs, i also have three large cans of pumpkin puree, bought when I was doing more baking (low fat) and before my mom grew some in her garden. I made a pumpkin custard with one can but wished I had only made half, basically pumpkin pie filling. Good, but too much. Pumpkin gnocchi, pancakes, muffins, bread pudding. I'd been looking for a spicy soup so I'm going to try that recipe, but maybe start with just half and add sausage. I think you could throw it in a brownie mix instead of fat, too. What about pumpkin ice cream?

Tamarind chutney is fabulous, I use it as the back taste in peanut sauce, along with Lemon/lime juice. I also mix it with coriander/mint chutney and put it on potatoes, hard boiled eggs, bread. You could do small amounts of hot sauce if you don't have green sauce, its kind of cloying for me to eat plain. On top of yogurt, with salt/cumin/pepper. Its basically brown ketchup.

I add pumpkin puree to my chili when I have it-- you can't pick out the exact flavor, but makes it taste richer; also avoids having to use sugar etc to make a baked item.

Hooray, thank you all! Those sound like much better pumpkin puree options for the rest of my jar. And that's a great tip for tamarind chutney! I'll experiment with mixes and proportions until I find something that I like.

Crumbs in meatballs, hm? It's worth a try, I suppose! Would they be good in hamburger too, I wonder?

I have more mint, parsley, rosemary, and thyme than I know what to do with. Pretty soon I'll have a bunch of basil too (we got a late start on growing it from seed, so the plants are only a couple inches tall now). Any ideas?

You can freeze fresh herbs in stock or water in ice cubes to use for later :)

Thank you! We arrived at our destination late last week and now we're trying to settle in, which is even harder because we're staying with my folks until we get on our feet/get jobs sorted out and figure out what would be the best place to live in relation to the jobs. So we're getting settled, but it's not really our space so we also can't settle in as we would if it was our own space. We're trying to make my old bedroom seem homey and usable for two adults, not the easiest task. I should start posting more on the decluttering thread, since I'm getting rid of a LOT of junk that was in my old room! And then I'm going to help my parents declutter, which they're excited about. It will be an interesting summer.

I am joining in again. I have wasted so much food lately, it is awful. So I have made a list of what I have now and am cutting down on shopping unless it is necessary in order to consume an existing food. Pots are boiling as I write! What do you all do with corn in large quantities?

I am joining in again. I have wasted so much food lately, it is awful. So I have made a list of what I have now and am cutting down on shopping unless it is necessary in order to consume an existing food. Pots are boiling as I write! What do you all do with corn in large quantities?

I am joining in again. I have wasted so much food lately, it is awful. So I have made a list of what I have now and am cutting down on shopping unless it is necessary in order to consume an existing food. Pots are boiling as I write! What do you all do with corn in large quantities?

somecobwebs, would you be willing to share the recipe for spicy corn soup?

I am really enjoying doing this this time. It is like a game this week. I have been throwing strange things in pots together and enjoying the results. It feels like playtime in the kitchen! I have my list on the table and when I finsih a meal I check off what I have eaten to reduce the list.

In my family I have a reputation for being a spice connoisseur (despite not having a huge tolerance for it) so I have a lot of hot sauce gifts from Christmases and birthdays here and there. With that in mind, I'm tackling a bag of dried kidney beans and digging through my giant bag of brown rice for lunches this week - spicy burrito bowls! I can use a different sauce each day!

I also used up an old bag of almond meal, some desiccated coconut and half a bar of cooking chocolate and made some pretty nice muffins, and I'm planning a big batch of oatmeal cookies during the week. My housemate doesn't cook at all so the idea of making food from scratch is a miracle to him, and I think he's about to start praying to my altar :P

We've been doing Happy Hour for Dinner more frequently. We have lots of cheeses and lots of wine. I supplement it with bread and some meats, and maybe a cheese spread of some kind (made with spices I already have, of course). We can easily make a meal of that, and it is using up some of the stuff that is less obviously a meal, as well as our nice wines which we can't ship when we move.

I've also been hitting the liquor cabinet. No, not like that! Any time I make something that needs a liquid, I add a spash of vermouth or even vodka or rum.

We've been doing Happy Hour for Dinner more frequently. We have lots of cheeses and lots of wine. I supplement it with bread and some meats, and maybe a cheese spread of some kind (made with spices I already have, of course). We can easily make a meal of that, and it is using up some of the stuff that is less obviously a meal, as well as our nice wines which we can't ship when we move.

Bread and cheese is always a favorite! The grocery store across the street has fresh baguettes for $0.99 that we pick up and then eat with whatever leftover veggies, cheese, deli meat, etc we have sitting around. Easy and seems a lot fancier than it is. ;)

We have been doing the antipasta platter dinner too, it has been to darn hot to cook and is always a favorite.

In an effort to reset ( and hopefully figure out what I'm allergic to) Hubs and I are planning on doing a whole 30 in September. Our reasoning being that we will have our lamb in and garden ready to harvest so it should be easier :)

So we are trying to eat up our stores of stuff that isn't whole 30 complaint for the next couple of months and save the money to spend on whatever we may buy to supplement that, and restock our stores for the winter.

I have used up our stock of various Asian noodles. I love how easy they are to use, Going to have to switch to something a little more thought/prep intensive - perhaps some of that Quinoa.

We have been doing the antipasta platter dinner too, it has been to darn hot to cook and is always a favorite.

In an effort to reset ( and hopefully figure out what I'm allergic to) Hubs and I are planning on doing a whole 30 in September. Our reasoning being that we will have our lamb in and garden ready to harvest so it should be easier :)

So we are trying to eat up our stores of stuff that isn't whole 30 complaint for the next couple of months and save the money to spend on whatever we may buy to supplement that, and restock our stores for the winter.

I have used up our stock of various Asian noodles. I love how easy they are to use, Going to have to switch to something a little more thought/prep intensive - perhaps some of that Quinoa.

I'm impatient when it comes to cooking, so I cook quinoa or rice in bulk every few days. I only have to heat it up in the microwave to accompany dinner, which would be less time than cooking most Asian noodles.

Good point 4alpacas, we don't have a microwave though...we didn't use the one in our last house much and it was a built in so since moving, we really haven't missed it, except for the odd thing like that. Usually bulk grains go with hubby for lunch, since he has a micro at work :)

Does make you get creative though, for example, I "roast" veggies in my panini press all the time. Last night was some fresh garlic scapes, lightly oiled salt and peppered and on to the press, so easy and tasty!

Good point 4alpacas, we don't have a microwave though...we didn't use the one in our last house much and it was a built in so since moving, we really haven't missed it, except for the odd thing like that. Usually bulk grains go with hubby for lunch, since he has a micro at work :)

During the week, our microwave is our most used appliance. I eat a lot of brown rice and quinoa, and they both take such a long time to cook.

My personal favourite for cauliflower is cutting it into big bouquets, salt, pepper and oil and pop it in the oven on 400 degrees until ever so lightly charred on the edges. Then a drizzle of parmesan and back in a few min. Sans parmesan this is the preparation for cauliflower soup, but to be honest: the cauliflower rarely last long enough to become soup...

This week marks the transition from spring to summer. I always struggle with these times of year: my fridge still has vegies that will need frying or baking but I simply want to eat things like sandwishes or salads. Oh, well.

We struggle with spring to summer cooking too. Those first few salads are great, then when the weather is nice and toasty, DH asks for pot roast.

Found a lost bag of pinto beans in the pantry. I soaked them overnight and am cooking them on the stove. This is the second time I've tried cooking beans. Hopefully this batch turns out creamier than the first attempt. Are there any secrets/additives I should put in there? So far the beans are cooking in the water used to soak them, no salt or other additives.

We struggle with spring to summer cooking too. Those first few salads are great, then when the weather is nice and toasty, DH asks for pot roast.

Found a lost bag of pinto beans in the pantry. I soaked them overnight and am cooking them on the stove. This is the second time I've tried cooking beans. Hopefully this batch turns out creamier than the first attempt. Are there any secrets/additives I should put in there? So far the beans are cooking in the water used to soak them, no salt or other additives.

We struggle with spring to summer cooking too. Those first few salads are great, then when the weather is nice and toasty, DH asks for pot roast.

Found a lost bag of pinto beans in the pantry. I soaked them overnight and am cooking them on the stove. This is the second time I've tried cooking beans. Hopefully this batch turns out creamier than the first attempt. Are there any secrets/additives I should put in there? So far the beans are cooking in the water used to soak them, no salt or other additives.

I'm going to attack this with some gusto, now, as it looks like I'll be moving house in approximately six weeks and I don't want to move too much from the pantry. Fridge (with built-in freezer) is generally okay as we only have such a small one that we can't stock up too much, but I bet there'll be a few things there that need using up.

First items on the list: wine frozen in cup-size servings, small portion of pearl barley, arborio rice (no prizes for guessing what we'll do with that!), wheat flour both plain and self-raising, and caster sugar. I don't eat much sugar or wheat but I have a work morning tea next week for which I can use up plenty of both in making some melting moments. Flour can also be used in Irish Soda Bread which the BF has discovered he loves and which I love baking. I think I'll do a pantry audit on the weekend so we can plan around the bits and bobs we need to use up before we move.

A while back I posted about chickpea flour and what I could do with that - well, in the end I made up a pizza dough recipe using chickpea flour and yoghurt as the two main ingredients. Worked brilliantly!

We are eating some odd things lately but boy are they tasty. Today: bacon wrapped dates stuffed with cheese.

Now to figure out what to do with the bag of lentils…any ideas? I have kale and chicken as well.

I cook lentils in stock and then chuck in roasted veggies (peppers, onions, courgettes, carrots) for work lunches. Can add cubes of feta cheese / roast chicken etc, or a can of chickpeas for more protein and variety.

A while back I posted about chickpea flour and what I could do with that - well, in the end I made up a pizza dough recipe using chickpea flour and yoghurt as the two main ingredients. Worked brilliantly!

wha???? I don't know what to think, my brain does not commute...but I want to try! Recipe please?

A while back I posted about chickpea flour and what I could do with that - well, in the end I made up a pizza dough recipe using chickpea flour and yoghurt as the two main ingredients. Worked brilliantly!

wha???? I don't know what to think, my brain does not commute...but I want to try! Recipe please?

Mix well, wrap in plastic and rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Then I just pressed the mixture into two small-medium sized pizza trays. Needed quite a bit of flour on my hands for the stickiness factor. Baked them for about ten minutes to crisp them slightly before adding toppings and cooking as per normal. They definitely go soggy if you don't bake them before topping!

He Who Does Not Cook (my housemate) takes up half of the small freezer we have with a lot of pizzas and curries and other pre-made meals. Since we split it neatly by shelf I tend to ignore all of his stuff, until he said to me last week "can you put your stuff back on your shelf? I need more room." Lo and behold, there was a 1kg each of icy beef and pork mince I must have dumped there after going to the market! I whipped up a double batch of these meatballs with half of it and made a lasagne with the other half. Lunches (and some dinners) for this week sorted, plus a huge amount of meatballs in the freezer for easy meals later on down the track. My housemate even got a slice of lasagne, which he raved about - that will never stop feeling nice!

I was on a roll so I thought I'd look in the cupboard to see what I could use, but I'm stuck on a lot of my baking/vegan cooking supplies. Anybody have ideas for agar-agar flakes or glucose syrup? Hah.

One of our goals for the second half of this year is completely revamp the pantry. We find that we still have been buying and storing food based on a family of four but two of the household members have long grown up and moved away. Now that I'm not working every day I have more time to cook and am no longer using pantry items that I used to. Time to get organizing!

Had an impromptu BBQ on Saturday, so I smothered the ribs with some BBQ sauce DH had taken from a restaurant and not used. Glad to be rid of it!

I have also been able to reduce the number of tupperwares in my cupboards by using stuff up and then not replacing it. My days of buying things because they look 'interesting' and not because I have a specific meal in mind are over! Thanks in no small part to this thread :)

Great job, theadvicist! I am probably always going to be a magpie when it comes to interesting ingredients, but I am slowly getting better :)

We have had quite a few wins the last couple of days. My mom's garden, and the flower beds...and anywhere she sprinkled compost... is exploding with spicy Asian lettuce. It's too strong to eat as a salad green, so I have sauteeing it with some garlic and using it in everything! I made a quinoa, lentil, greens stirfry with some veggie sausage that had been languishing in our fridge, which will feed us lunches for the rest of the week. Happy to use up some quinoa and lentils!

We got some broccoli in our CSA which was amazing but the stalks were long and spindly and rather tough. I boiled them in the water as I steamed the tops and buzzed it up and strained it. Used as a base for some "green" mashed potatoes using potato flakes from our pantry.

Made some Kimchi (my first attempt) with some napa cabbage and green onions from our CSA and a bunch of spices from my never-ending supply. It is really tasty and goes well with all of the above.

I have a bunch of bags of Vietnamese coffee in my pantry. I love, love, love to make traditional Vietnamese coffee but can't handle the sugar load anymore. I have been cold-brewing it and using it for iced lattes and finding interesting places to use it up.

I found a "Ethiopian Coffee pancakes" and used my concentrate, they were delish! Then I made a chia seed pudding out of the coffee substitute and milk (yay! for using up chia seeds) and we have been having it for breakfast over some cherries from the freezer.

Still working on the cornmeal :) Made another batch of cornbread a couple of days ago, might make some more this week.

I've been reading a lot about food waste lately (David Evans, Food Waste; National Resources Defense Council, Wasted; etc.), and it's really gotten me fired up to avoid wasting any food. So I'm back for this challenge.

I cracked open the fridge yesterday intent on making brassica chips, when lo and behold, I find the ingredients for cucumber garbanzo bean salad completely forgotten by me and on the turn. Undeterred, I made the salad with the barely squishy cuke (still crispy with a few bits of squish near the end, which I ate) and yellowed parsley, and it was utterly delicious. Best I've ever made and with no ill effects.

I have a lot of food projects going, and I don't have enough time to get to them all. I think I'm a bit too ambitious with how I schedule my time. How do you handle it? One food project a night or a few on one weekend day?

I have a lot of food projects going, and I don't have enough time to get to them all. I think I'm a bit too ambitious with how I schedule my time. How do you handle it? One food project a night or a few on one weekend day?

I don't overschedule myself in the kitchen. I plan to make 1-2 recipes/weekend. I have the groceries delivered the day before (delivery on Saturday, cook on Sunday).

I assume that I won't cook on a weeknight.

I'm lazy. I've come to terms with that, so it helps a lot with food waste. I now focus on foods that I can eat without any processing (e.g. berries instead of watermelon).

I have a lot of food projects going, and I don't have enough time to get to them all.[/b] I think I'm a bit too ambitious with how I schedule my time. How do you handle it? One food project a night or a few on one weekend day?

Good job on the salad!

I work from home, so that gives me more flexibility. Usually a lot of my meals/projects don't take a huge amount of actual hands-on time, so it is easier to fit in. My biggest issue is to remember to do the prep for a lot of things the night before - pop the coffee grounds in water for cold brew, mix the dough for a no-knead bread, soak the beans...

In the winter it is a lot of braises and crockpots and set it and forget it type of meals.

In the summer it's a lot of make the staples ahead of time and just combine in creative ways with whatever needs to be used up, or do the prep so raw stuff gets eaten.

I'm pretty luck that Mr. Swick likes cooking and helping me in the kitchen so the extra pair of hands helps gets more done on weekends. He also knows I am more likely to make tasty food if I have a clean kitchen to start with so he'll occasionally get up earlier then me and give the kitchen a quick clean before I start - or help with dishes along the way to make clean up easier.

Things have slowed down a bit here as we get the pantry into good shape and house projects take centre stage. Used up the last of the sardine stockpile last night - we have really enjoyed the recipes (sardine arrabiata pasta and fritters with warm salad) so will buy more eventually. Still have a tin of smoked mussels that may become pasta.

Other items on the agenda are self raising flour, icing sugar, jasmine tea, and still the 5 million bottles of chilli sauce. Luckily, we like all of those things. Have been experimenting with subbing icing sugar for regular in baking when I don't think it will make much of a difference and so far it has work out ok. New rule introduced to never buy any more icing 'mixture' cut with flour as it makes gluten free baking too complicated trying to remember which is which.

Anyone have a good recipe for using up some home made apricot jam that cooked a little too long and isn't quite right?

Anyone have a good recipe for using up some home made apricot jam that cooked a little too long and isn't quite right?

Use it in a savory application? This apricot, rosemary, ginger chicken tajine is one of our favorite recipes. You could use less/no honey and substitute the jam. I usually just use whole chicken thighs and shred the meat once it is done, much easier.

My husband and I moved out of Alaska for the first time several years ago and now live on the "Wet Coast," where winter rain and wind storms mean lots of downed trees and branches and occasional power outages. I worry about my frozen goods during these outages, so I think eating down my frozen stores to a reasonable amount is a good idea. I have more than enough shelf stable goods for emergency stores.

In particular, I have a chest freezer full of salmon I have been working away at for a month or so now. Both my parents and in-laws send it down from time to time, and until recently I mostly ignored it since my husband never asks for it. The hubby and I grew up in Alaska, so we've eaten a lot of salmon over the years and it's not really exciting food anymore, however healthy. Some of it is smoked, but unfortunately their recipe is a little strong for my taste. We've given some away and traded some for grass fed beef, which was awesome. I found a few freezer burned regular fillets, so I baked those and my dogs feasted on them for several meals.

I'm not terribly fond of most salmon recipes, but I discovered I like salmon salad as well as I like tuna salad. My husband loves it, and he typically likes salmon even less than I do. So needless to say, it has been a non-stop salmon salad bonanza at the Mo household. I've also found that I can "cut" the smoked fillets with canned salmon, unsmoked filets, or even canned tuna and it balances the flavor nicely.

Getting there... about a month now until I move house, so I've been using up some dried beans and dahl as well as canned goods.

The real issue is that without batch cooking waiting for me in the fridge and freezer, I'll turn to takeaway, so I still want a reasonable amount of ready-made (by me) meals on hand throughout the move.

I totally get the desire to have some ready made meals Happier, it makes it a lot easier!

I thought I was doing better - then I discovered two more ice cream pails of staples that got lost in our move and I only have JUST gotten around to unpacking (we moved in Dec) On the bright side they were filled with some Turkish Gum my Hubby loves and was all sad because we were out of, and some vacuum packed loose leaf tea.

But it was also full of tea bags (we are trying to get away from) and I thought I was doing good on using up. Oh well Guess we will have a variety for ice tea for the rest of the summer.

Just formally met our new neighbour across the ally, he came over to ask if he could borrow our smoker in the fall. I wasn't sure if it was usable, it is home built, came with the house, is probably 50 years old and needs some serious repair work. I said he's welcome to take a look. Turns out he is pretty confident he can fix it up and show us how to use it. Got to talking all about foodie projects - hunting, gardening, raising ducks and such. Sounds like he'll be a great resource to help us learn, and someone who I can share some of my pantry goodies with :)

I'm not sure why I have so much food storage (regular fridge/freezer, additional full-size freezer, two additional fridge/freezers, and a fairly large pantry) - we just tend to add things constantly, it's a bit insane. Thus I am also on the forum for decluttering! Using the same ideas - I've decided I need to 'declutter' the food in addition to everything else in the house. I've had one of the extra fridge/freezer unplugged since right after New Year's (we have a big party and I needed the space for food/drinks), so that's a plus. Unfortunately we have a LOT of processed food - and I'm trying to get the family to move away from them. Not wanting to be wasteful - we'll be trying to portion them out and eat them in the next few weeks. And... I'm not such a good cook - and not very inventive. Many of the things mentioned here I haven't even heard of :) I'm excited to join in the fun, reduce our food bill each month, and work our way through the processed foods. I'm interested in trying some of the recipes here too - such creative cooking on a routine basis seems so foreign to me! You guys are all very inspiring!

I'm not sure why I have so much food storage (regular fridge/freezer, additional full-size freezer, two additional fridge/freezers, and a fairly large pantry) - we just tend to add things constantly, it's a bit insane. Thus I am also on the forum for decluttering! Using the same ideas - I've decided I need to 'declutter' the food in addition to everything else in the house. I've had one of the extra fridge/freezer unplugged since right after New Year's (we have a big party and I needed the space for food/drinks), so that's a plus. Unfortunately we have a LOT of processed food - and I'm trying to get the family to move away from them. Not wanting to be wasteful - we'll be trying to portion them out and eat them in the next few weeks. And... I'm not such a good cook - and not very inventive. Many of the things mentioned here I haven't even heard of :) I'm excited to join in the fun, reduce our food bill each month, and work our way through the processed foods. I'm interested in trying some of the recipes here too - such creative cooking on a routine basis seems so foreign to me! You guys are all very inspiring!

Welcome, jrubin! Awesome that you have decided to join us, it can be a little overwhelming at first - that's why this is such a great thread!

I know this might run counter to some mustachian ideals - but if you have "that much" processed food in your house, and you don't want your family eating it, you might be better off donating it or even throwing it out. The money you have spent is a sunk cost and while you are saving $ in the short term by eating it, it is doing NO GOOD for your family's health. Continuing to eat it is basically just extending dependency and feeding addiction.

There are some great documentaries on you tube about sugar and processed foods and how they affect your health, if you are interested.

Once that stuff is out of your life, you can start lighter, freer, healthier and having some fun in the kitchen! The best place to start is being inspired by those processed foods. What does your family like? What do they eat a lot of? Can you make a healthier, homemade version?

Start with baby-steps and there are loads of members on this thread and others across the forum that would be happy to give you tips and advice and cheer you on!

I'm not sure why I have so much food storage (regular fridge/freezer, additional full-size freezer, two additional fridge/freezers, and a fairly large pantry) - we just tend to add things constantly, it's a bit insane. Thus I am also on the forum for decluttering! Using the same ideas - I've decided I need to 'declutter' the food in addition to everything else in the house. I've had one of the extra fridge/freezer unplugged since right after New Year's (we have a big party and I needed the space for food/drinks), so that's a plus. Unfortunately we have a LOT of processed food - and I'm trying to get the family to move away from them. Not wanting to be wasteful - we'll be trying to portion them out and eat them in the next few weeks. And... I'm not such a good cook - and not very inventive. Many of the things mentioned here I haven't even heard of :) I'm excited to join in the fun, reduce our food bill each month, and work our way through the processed foods. I'm interested in trying some of the recipes here too - such creative cooking on a routine basis seems so foreign to me! You guys are all very inspiring!

Welcome, jrubin! Awesome that you have decided to join us, it can be a little overwhelming at first - that's why this is such a great thread!

I know this might run counter to some mustachian ideals - but if you have "that much" processed food in your house, and you don't want your family eating it, you might be better off donating it or even throwing it out. The money you have spent is a sunk cost and while you are saving $ in the short term by eating it, it is doing NO GOOD for your family's health. Continuing to eat it is basically just extending dependency and feeding addiction.

There are some great documentaries on you tube about sugar and processed foods and how they affect your health, if you are interested.

Once that stuff is out of your life, you can start lighter, freer, healthier and having some fun in the kitchen! The best place to start is being inspired by those processed foods. What does your family like? What do they eat a lot of? Can you make a healthier, homemade version?

Start with baby-steps and there are loads of members on this thread and others across the forum that would be happy to give you tips and advice and cheer you on!

I feel ya, jrubin. I store a lot of food too. After a massive decluttering I was able to ditch one of my two big full freezers. So now just down to one. Most of the food I have is very unprocessed, but it was still starting to feel less like bounty and more like burden.

Awesome Swick is totally right - welcome and please feel free to ask questions! Lots of us love cooking and are happy to suggest ideas and recipes. I love the point about donating the processed food you'd rather not feed your family, too!